Book Creator is one of my favourite apps to use in my music classroom.
One of the advantages to using a general classroom app in music lessons is that the students already know how to use the app and therefore most times I do not have to spend time teaching them all the skills needed. On the flip side I have also worked together with their classroom teacher by introducing the recording side of the app in my classes while they have already learnt to write, type and insert images in class.
One activity my students love to do with Book Creator is make their own ePubs.
Below are 3 examples from my classroom that has served different purposes.
Whole Class ePub ‘The Animals in the Class’
First we looked at, and sang along to, a few nursery rhymes and songs that had been written into books e.g. The Wheels on the Bus, I’m a Little Teapot, Old McDonald Had a Farm.
Next we rewrote our own version of The Wheels on the Bus using the title of ‘The Animals in the Class’.
Each student wrote and illustrated their own page on a piece of paper. Then in groups with a shared iPad, they inserted a photo of each students’ illustration on a separate page in Book Creator, adding their name. Next their group helped each person record using the ‘Add Sound’ audio tool in Book Creator, singing and playing instruments to their verse.
Each of the group Book Creator ePubs were then airdropped to my iPad and merged together into one class ePub.
Here is the result which they were extremely proud of:
Instrument Families ePub
To learn about the instrument families, My Year 1 (6 year old) students created an ePub showing each instrument family and recorded what each family sounds like.
Since the latest Book Creator update allows GarageBand files to be imported directly into a Book Creator page, this enabled my students to record their own track for each family using the virtual instruments in GarageBand and then inserting it onto the relevant page.
To save time I created a template for my students with the instrument family images already inserted and sent this to each child via airdrop.
I stepped the students through recording in GarageBand and then sending the soundtrack to Book Creator, inserting it as a button.
The students also took a screenshot of their GarageBand recording and inserted this from the camera roll.
Here is an example of their work.
Artist Project
One project I have done with my Year 6/7 classes is to review a song from their favourite artist.
The students inserted the lyrics of the song and then the song itself from their iTunes music.
The final task was to write a reflection on the meaning of the song, those that struggled with writing used video or audio to record their reflection instead.
Here is an example:
Book Creator has allowed me to transform previous paper, pen and oral presentation activities into interactive projects, capturing my students performances into ePubs, creating an archive we can keep for years to come.
I hope these examples from my classroom inspire you to use Book Creator in your teaching too.
Teach to transform!
Cheryl
